No Expansion For The UFL In 2025! Goal To Have MLS Styled Ownership!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 มิ.ย. 2024
- The week after the UFL Championship game has brought some major news regarding both the 2025 UFL season and future goals of the league!
Article used in video - www.sportsbusinessjournal.com...
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I don't think the Panthers belong in Detroit simply because Ford Field is willing to prioritize other events before them.
That's the one issue I have with the Panthers being there, if it wasn't for that issue I think the Panthers would be great there as with how seating is you can actually make some great TV angles in regards to attendance with just the lower bowl filled up, but if the stadium doesn't treat the Panthers with respect at all than they might have to leave.
MONEY TALKS, BULLDUST WALKS.
What size slice of the pie would you want…?
9K x $20.00 Or 27K x $60.00 for some Rock Concert 🎶
Well the UFL executives should have done a better job with getting a deal done with Ford Field
I saw that the EMU track around the football field is gone I wonder if that means the Michigan Panthers could be there at EMU stadium and a full off season of the UFL without having to compete with other leagues will help massively
Of all the stadiums Michigan could move to I think EMU's stadium is probably the best since it's a smaller stadium.
@@ZombPhoxUFL because the soccer stadium won't be built until 2027 so either EMU would work or just stick it out with Ford Field because more and more people are coming to Ford Field and it's a dome stadium which is a nice perk
Ford Field being a dome is definitely a massive plus as you never have to deal with weather issues like you do in non-dome places.
EMU knows where its bread is buttered.
THAT IS Football 🏈 1000 💯 x > TRAYACK.
i like the idea of owner ship, i think it's the perfect plan for an expansion league
I liked your explanation of how ownership would work via MLS model. I think that is better than outright ownership. Makes potential owners really ownership in the league vs. owner of a team which could cause problems.
I agree with you 100%, having owners be operators of a team while supplying money for the league is great to both lower costs from FOX, Rock, ect, while still allowing for teams to be truly operated on their own without the risk of an owner disbanding/folding a team for one reason or another.
I think Rynearson Stadium is perfect for the Panthers. Until that new Soccer Field is built.
This League is operating like a NCAA Division II organization. No advertising, which host cities hardly knew the teams exist. No ties/sponsorships with the NFL. No NIL Level visibility, marketing of players/commercial products; nor, real push to highlight league(UFL) apparel. Need a Prime Time Friday Night Game, a Late Afternoon Saturday game, to avoid some of college basketball key matchups & local college programs games, which hurt Memphis, Houston, & Birmingham attendance, and wrap up the weekend with the regular Sunday two game broadcast, at slightly later start times.
However, this league needs to expand by 4 teams, not only for more visible content/product; but, 8 teams looks & gives the impression of a less than low-level Minor League vibe. The needs to do a real market study of viable cities & approach to the population of those cities. Two cities that come to mind, right off the bat are Oklahoma City(Norman) and Canton....possibly Louisville as a third city, Baltimore as a crosstown rival to DC, maybe.
The kicker is broadcasting. With a twelve-team league, the league can put together a network package, similar to the NFL Sunday Ticket, with the ABC/Fox networks, streaming on TH-cam TV where as, the UFL have 6 game every week, for 10 weeks, at a compatible marketed share price.... for the sake of argument, let's say for an example: $39.99 for the package(all 40 Sunday games), $49.99 with RedZone/4-Screen Sneak-Peek. The League would maintain one Prime Time game on Friday Night, rotated between ABC(5 games)/Fox(5 games). One National broadcast game mid-Sunday afternoon on a rotating basis with ABC(5)/Fox(5). The other 4 remaining games, played simultaneously, mid-Sunday afternoon on RedZone/4-Screen Sneak-Peek...with kick start time at 3:15p et/2:15p ct...broadcast start at 3p et/2p ct & broadcast end at 6:30p et/5:30p ct, unless overages. Obviously, when one network feature the Friday Night Prime Time Game, the other network partner broadcast the Sunday National Televised Game. The other Four game, split broadcasting rights between the two networks, ABC/Fox coverage, streamed on TH-cam TV RedZone/4-Screen Sneak-Peek. This can help the league generate more revenue, from package sells & Ads; and maybe, help marginally increase TH-cam TVs Subscriptions some.
This league needs to convey a more big-boy business operation plan, as if they are an SEC/B10 knock off alternative to minor league football. Now as for the schedule for a 12-Team League...this is where the league needs to temporarily, think outside the box, for the time being, until the time come, hopefully, where the League can expand to 16 Teams. Forget this USFL/XFL Division format...time to move past that, at least for now. Set up 3 Divisions of 4 Teams each, based on naturally geographic proximity/regional rival. Each Team play 6 Division games, home & home, against their divisional rival. 2 games, one home/one away, against two opponents of one Division...the same against the other Division. Rotate opponents every two years...if the League can last that long. 6 Team Playoffs format, where as, 3 Division winners & 3 Wildcards(regardless of division affiliate). Top two teams gets a bye, for 1st Round Wildcard Weekend....3rd division winner(3-seed) host the 6th seed and the top wildcard team(4th-seed) host the 5th seed. 2nd Round Divisional Playoff Game feature the top team(1st-seed) hosting the lowest seeded team that advance and the 2nd seed team hosting the other team that advance. Championship Game feature the two remaining teams that advance. Again, ABC/Fox split televised playoff games....networks bid on televising the Championship Game. All post-season kick times TBD....probably on a Saturdays/Sundays, at that time of the year, when March Madness is long gone.
I agree they did the right thing keeping the same markets. Of course I’d like ten teams next year, but I’m fine with them focusing on making these eight markets better.
Losing money this year is no big deal. Had some legacy XFL expenditures. Hopefully they didn’t lose nearly as much as the XFL did last year.
If Shanks is telling the truth that the league is ahead of schedule on becoming sustainable then I would imagine they didn't lose nearly as much as the XFL did. I really hope the league markets well in all 8 markets to help get that average attendance number to be better.
Breakers fans aint even mad at that point. At least they know they are pretty much a lock to come back when the first expansion happens. Also not moving teams that's nice
Edit: OMG THE LEAUGE ISNT PROFITABLE IN ITS FIRST YEAR THEY ARE DOOMED - UFL Haters 2024
I truly believe that of all the teams on "hiatus" the Breakers have the best shot to return with the first expansion due to how many people like the Breakers and by how well they have done in TV ratings across the season.
@@ZombPhoxUFL Also the Shrine is basically done by 2026
I can't lie I wanted expansion.. without expansion popularity is gonna dip for the UFL.. they need to go into market like Omaha where they would improve income for the league
I really hope that whenever the league first expands we see Omaha and New Orleans get teams.
Panthers cannot move to Ann Arbor or Spartan stadium. Even St Louis would look empty at those stadiums. I would pick either EMU, CMU, or WMU stadiums
I think EMU is the best option for them if they decide to move, but I still believe that despite the issues they need to stay at Ford Field.
I still think they'll expand and as for improvement, you expand to get better markets and as for an MLS ownership structure, have you noticed no one knows anything about the MLS? Most people in the US have never heard of it and their attendance is terrible for such a major league averaging 20,000 per game calling them sold out crowds but then people attending the games say it's more like what you said about being at the UFL Championship as people actually don't show up. In 2016 they even got slammed in a mini scandal about faking attendance numbers.
As for the ownership structure of MLS, look into it as that's been a major problem for the league as they don't get much promotion from it as no one has anything invested into the singular team like what I was saying. You've got to have investors in the particular team to want to promote it where they play or else they'll focus on the league as a whole and fail to promote the team. Many fans of MLS can't even remember their home teams name because they get so little attention.
Why they're going with this I cannot fathom as one thing keeping MLS going is foreign investment... basically venture capital which we're seeing dying everywhere now. Look at the WNBA as for as little as they got before the arrival of Caitlin Clark even they got more attention than MLS gets and that's with the wealth of the NBA backing them.
In order for the UFL to survive, they've got to have local marketing as you said but MLS local marketing is some of the worst in the country as you can look at most cities where they play and most sports fans in these cities don't even know they have a team let alone the state... that's the problem the UFL has now so how is this going to fix that?
Try this... without looking on line, name one MLS team and if you can name one try three. Even in Minor League Bseball most sports fans can name at least three Minor League baseball teams and never follow a game because Minor League Baseball promotes locally well enough that most sports fans have heard of them.
So, rethink your observations as a main focus of what you said was local promotions and for as long as MLS has been around, does the average sports fan even know they exist let alone any of their teams? I highly doubt it and if you want local marketing you've got to do better. They already have more fans attending UFL games than MLS in most years it's been in operation so if we're talking that then the UFL should stick with what it's doing.
Remember, MLS has been around since 1996 and you might say that they get 20,000 per game making them the third largest pro sports attendance in the US but that's because most of the rest are in arena's designed for smaller crowds. Then you have MLB and the NBA which play a massive number of games which is the secret to their wealth where the NFL banks on enormous crowds for just a relatively few games. Remember what you said when I pointed out that the UFL needs to play more games? In fact, being a smaller league and needing to play in smaller stadiums, they could play up to 20 games a year easily if they moved to smaller stadiums and used some common sense about marketing and overhead.
Now, it may sound like I'm disagreeing for the sake of disagreeing but I don't see this strategy working and they again lost money which I'm sure FOX was prepared to see. But, they'll only take the losses for so long and with no assurance about even playing in 2026, I think if they stick with 8 teams they're as good as dead.
These issues with attendance are going to take a lot more than what the MLS ownership structure can produce and you just do not see the big promotion behind MLS that a pro football team depends on. Like I mentioned, most barely even know they have teams in MLS.
While the MLS does have its problems, I don't think it's as bad as you say in the sense that I can only name a couple of minor league baseball teams yet I could name over 5 MLS teams with ease, and if I tried probably 10 (and I don't even watch the league lol). The MLS style of ownership is great for allowing the league to have power, and while there are better alternatives to that style of ownership it still is better than giving a person full control of a franchise. The UFL is not at a point where playing 20 games would be any help, as doing so you alienate a bunch of players who go to the league as players wouldn't want to play a 20 game season that want to go to the NFL. In the distant future if the UFL is able to play players a substantial amount of money than 20 games definitely could work, but not now. I know we both disagree with expanding in 2025, but I still believe that not expanding is the right move as it seems that the higher-ups understand that they marketed horrifically in almost every area and that they need to work on that to improve attendance next season to then allow for expansion in 2026 (if we have a 2026 season) rather than expanding now despite the league having a massive issue with marketing for teams.
@@ZombPhoxUFL but then maintaining 8 teams won't fix anything and where they're talking about the MLS style the reality is that's why the MLS is almost completely unknown as they don't promote as there's no single person with any reason to specifically promote it. Unless they create independent marketing groups for each team then their focus will be on the league meaning the very local marketing you and I both know has to happen to promote the teams won't happen. Take Birmingham as an example. Where many of the teams can promote just to the city, Birminghams success has to come from promoting to the entire state of Alabama. With MLS as a leadership format, they won't even promote to the metro Brimingham area let alone the state meaning the Stallions are a dead team under this. The same will be true for most of the current teams as for this style, the teams they put on hiatus would be better to have so they kept the wrong team structure for this. Look at the UFL site itself from the standpoint of marketing as if you're primarily going to market the league from a central standpoint rather than each team, then you have to heavily market from that site... they aren't. They have a team page for each team but no way for fans to interact on it.
I just do not see the MLS ownership structure as being able to provide the local marketing you said it must have.
If you see it differently, please explain to us how this will help with local marketing? MLS also benefits from a lot of foreigners in the US and our smaller soccer fan base who can only watch foreign soccer who are desperate for soccer here... but beyond this, they do a horrible job promoting their teams. In fact, if you search you'll find that they are heavily criticised for their marketing or lack thereof and the main reasons provided are their ownership structure can't generate the resources needed to market or generate any excitement about their players who often are considered subpar.
It's ok to disagree with me but the very things you think are positives about the MLS for the UFL are the very same failings the UFL currently has. So how is this an improvement?
@@steveneighner7543
Exactly what MLS market are you referring to ? I live in an MLS market that has had a franchise for over 20 years and EVERYONE knows about MLS and the team. The fact that MLS has been around for over two decades is an example of how SUCCESSFUL the MLS model of league/ownership can work. If the UFL can make it to year 25 then it’s a HUGE success ! If you are in a MLS market that doesn’t make an effort to market then it’s on your ownership group and team !
The things that were pointed out in the article is that they have plans to both have MLS styled ownership and have local partnerships in each city which is why it can work. You get both the benefit of having ownership be done in a way where the league keeps overall control of the teams while also allowing for local marketing as well.
@@ZombPhoxUFL if they do this it might work based on if the local partnerships have real power as the problem with MLS style ownership is that the group at the top controls everything and they do a terrible job with promotions. Womens soccer has far more support in the US and it's been suggested for years that a women's league be created to compliment MLS like the NBA and WNBA but they have no money for it and can't even promote themselves let alone anyone else. So, anything to do with MLS style ownership I'm going to be extremely skeptical of. If they do a majority ownership of the league as a whole basically taking 51% ownership for the league and 49% for local investors, that's basically what I said about FOX maintaining ownership and selling to local owners. FOX needs to cut itself free of the league as anything but a broadcast partner.
GO PANTHERS!
USFL and XFL have been around for several years now so marketing shouldn't be the problem. It's minor league football (no disrespect meant) so you need to sell tickets for cheap. Game day walk up 1/2 price just to get people in the seats. The play is actually very good. You draw less than 10,000 next year and you lose your team to another city. I agree with you on not expanding next year. Fix the non drawing team first
The biggest issue with marketing this past year was that the league just couldn't market due to the merger since the merger wasn't official until the very end of 2023 and with the stadium issues in Houston and Detroit the league got hit the hardest in those two places. Hopefully the league does some major marketing during the off-season to improve all the attendance to at least 8K+ for every game.
The Dixon plan would have 100 💯 percent worked if you picked the right 8 teams FIRST, Now you have to Expand! Nawleans OKC Madison, WI, Sterling Heights (Michigan) Kenchucky, New Jersey & the Jacksonville Bulls (Road Team) the Wandering Philadelphia Stars (Road Team) & Oakland Invaders (Road Team)3 Bye weeks 2 at March Madness & 1 at NHL Stanley Cup 4th game
@IlluminovaNibiru definitely need to work around march madness. The league needs to stay away from big markets. Jacksonville FL (Bulls) was a great example in original usfl. They drew so well the NFL couldn't ignore. Tulsa, Omaha, Kentucky, and others
@johnwx25 The UFL should look into non NFL cities in 2026 like Columbus Ohio Newark New Jersey Tulsa Oklahoma & Orlando Florida Sacramento or San Diego California
No disrespect meant, but do you realize they were selling tickets for $10 buck each in some markets. How low do you want them to be? Your proposal for moving team due to low attendance makes no sense at this point. Did you listen to the analogies ZombPhox put foward?